Misleading Information
by howwasthefun-vee
Summary: No one was prepared when William Brandt was thought dead. Especially his brothers, Clint and Aaron. (Don't worry. Not a death fic.)
**I know, I know. Don't bug me about it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Mission Impossible, or the Avengers. (I wish I did.)**

Clint had been having a fine day. He was at the counter of the main kitchen in the Avengers Tower with Tasha and the rest of the Avengers. He had called Laura that morning and had talked to her on Skype. Will had called him a couple days ago to tell him he was going on a mission. He didn't usually get a heads up, so it was nice. He, Aaron, and Will could just talk through their mental link, but it was nice to be able to hear his voice somewhere other than his head. He had been having a great time until a wave of pain, panic, and fear hit him like a truck going 70 through the mental link he had with his brothers. He could barely think through the pain and fear, but he knew his teammates were calling his name. They were wondering what was wrong. Natasha was telling them to give him room. He couldn't breath or think, or do much of anything.

"Clint, what's wrong?" Her quiet voice cut through the cloud like a warm knife through butter. Clint had long fallen out of his chair, and could barely speak through the tears. He was gasping and sobbing and had his eyes closed tightly.

"Will-" Natasha froze. The other team members had heard his quiet words, and were looking at each other in confusion. Clint had tears streaming down his face as Natasha cradled his head. She didn't know what was happening to Will, but she knew it was bad. She had to hold back her own tears as her phone was called by Phil.

* * *

Phil had been enjoying rare one on one time with his son, Aaron, after he got back from one of his missions. Aaron was the triplet that he spent the least amount of time with, as he was usually on extremely top secret missions that required him to leave for months at a time., undercover. The triplet didn't have another mission for about 2 weeks, which was a rare blessing. It just so happened, Will would be on a mission for the next 1 to 3 weeks, so they probably wouldn't be able to talk to each other while Aaron was on vacation. The father and son were on the way to the cafeteria when Aaron went ragdoll. He collapsed, completely limp on the ground, not moving a centimeter. Phil had called for a medic, almost frantic, and knelt on the ground.

"Aaron! What's wrong?" Coulson was shocked to see that Aaron had started to cry and flinch. He was coughing and barely able to make a noise.

"Hurts... Dad."

"I know buddy. I need to know what's wrong. What happened?" It hadn't even occurred to Coulson that it might have been the mental connection between his 3 children. Nothing had ever made it through the connection that strongly.

"Will..." Phil's heart leapt up into his throat. What was causing Will this much pain to cause his brother to be brought to tears? Aaron rarely cried, if ever, so this was especially concerning. A sudden thought came to him. Clint. He immediately picked up the phone, and called Natasha, knowing Clint probably wouldn't be able to answer.

"Natasha, is Clint OK?"

"No. He collapsed to the ground and said it's Will."

"Aaron did the same thing." There was silence over the secure line. Natasha started to speak.

"Should-" Phil cut her off quickly.

"I'll bring Aaron to the tower. It'll be easier there. Explain the stuff to the Avengers. They're probably confused." He hung up without saying goodbye. The medic had arrived by now. The man was looking Aaron over, but looked at Phil and shook his head. He couldn't find an answer. Coulson shooed him away. He leaned close to Aaron.

"Can you walk?"

"Not... without help..."

"I can help you to the quinjet bay. We're going to visit Clint.

* * *

Natasha hung up just after Coulson. She motioned for Steve to help her move Clint to the couch. Clint had to pick up the archer bridal style, as the man sobbed and writhed in pain. Natasha didn't know how Phil would get Aaron to the tower, but she hoped he would do it soon. She knew being in the presence of one of his triplets would help ease Clint's pain. She knew the others were more than slightly unnerved at the sight of Hawkeye crying in pain and grief. Natasha ran to the hall closet and pulled out the first aid kit. It had a light tranquilizer in it. It might help dull some of Clint's pain. She ran back to Clint and quickly injected it into his arm. It took several tense minutes, but the archer drifted off to sleep. The silence was broken by Steve.

"Natasha, what's going on?" The assassin turned to him. Phil had told her to tell them, but she was still hesitant. She shook her head. They deserved to know, and the triplet's father had told her to, so...

"What do you know of Clint's family?" Tony snorted.

"You mean his abusive father and piece of shit brother, Barney? Yeah. We know about that." Natasha smiled slightly.

"Yeah, but what you don't know, is that Clint had been adopted into that family, he just didn't know it until he ran away from the circus." This was met by stunned silence that Bruce shattered.

"What does this have to do with Clint's episode?"

"Everything. Clint doesn't have parents. At least, not traditional ones. He was created in a lab, in a test tube. He and six other eggs. He was then placed in a surrogate mother. All the eggs died except for Clint. Do you wanna know what happened? The egg split. Twice. Triplets." Tony was looking at her like she was insane.

"Clint has 2 identical brothers?"

"Yes. But that's not it. The lab, created these eggs for a very special purpose." Tasha turned to Steve, who answered with a haunted look on his face.

"The super soldier serum." She nodded.

"Why do you think Clint has such good eyesight and unnatural climbing skills?" Thor spoke up for the first time.

"What about Clinton's brothers? Did they receive any enhancements as well?"

"Oh yes. Aaron Cross, previously Kenneth Kitsom, is unnaturally strong and has amazing agility. Will, the other one, he has a perfect memory, unable to forget anything, and is almost as strong as Aaron. He can also take down even me in marital arts. He is unnaturally fast as well."

"It seems this Will got the most enhancements out of all of them."

"Yeah. Will was the original egg. The scientists didn't expect more than 1 egg to survive and had jam packed them with as much as they could." Steve looked at Natasha.

"Were there side effects?" Natasha nodded sadly. She didn't want to betray Clint's trust by telling them, but she really had no other choice.

"Clint is 80% deaf in both ears. Aaron was mentally challenged until some other program... but we can get into that later. Will can sometimes have crippling migraines that are caused by the mutations, and he sometimes has trouble filtering out all his memories because he can't forget them." Bruce reminded them of his earlier question.

"What does this have to do with Clint's episode?"

"I was getting to that. These mutations caused another side effect. The triplets can literally feel each other's emotions, their pain, and they can read each other's minds. Will must be going through something almost beyond human pain tolerance for this to happen to Aaron and Will." Natasha closed her eyes. She didn't even want to know what Will must be going through. It hurt to think about. She loved Will so much... that if anything happened to him... She wouldn't... couldn't live through it. JARVIS interrupted her thoughts.

"A quinjet containing Agent Coulson and another SHIELD agent has just landed."

* * *

Phil had gently picked up Aaron, surprised at how weak the normally strong man was. He had to support most of Aaron's weight. They went slowly to the quinjet hanger. The trip normally took 2 or so minutes, took them almost 10. He set Aaron down on the floor and got into the cockpit of the plane. They were soon within a stone's throw of the Avenger's tower, and Phil could see that Aaron's pain had slightly abated. He gently set the jet down and went to help Aaron out of the plane. They made it to the elevator as soon as they could. Aaron rested heavily on the wall, some tears slipping down his normally dry cheeks. He must've been in excruciating pain, just standing there. When the doors opened to reveal the Avengers common floor, he and Aaron limped out. Coulson was relieved when Steve came to assist. He didn't know how long he could support the spy.

"Is this Aaron?" Asked Bruce once the triplet was sprawled on the second couch. Phil nodded.

"You all seem to be taking this fairly well. And by that, I mean none of you have tried to jump off the tower." Tony and Bruce were looking mildly disturbed, while Thor just looked confused. Steve, on the other hand, looked ready to pass out.

"Are you sure they're not clones?" Interrupted Tony. "They could be clones ya know. The only difference JARVIS can detect is because of scars and their fingerprints are different. They have maybe 2 spots that are even slightly off." Phil laughed.

"You should see Will and Clint. They don't have those 2 little spots that are different." Everyone sat in somewhat comfortable silence, until Tony broke the silence.

"How do you guys know so much about Clint and his super brothers?" Phil straightened, looking like a proud father.

"We found the place that did it. The triplets were 5. I adopted them, and because their father. I am their legal guardian." To say the other Avengers (Minus Tasha) were surprised, would have been a gross understatement.

The room was dead silent.

...Until Clint and Aaron both stiffened at the same time. Then, they both started screaming and sobbing. Natasha ran towards Clint and Phil towards Aaron. The two men were screaming in absolute pain and agony. Both men were clutching the person holding them and sobbing. It was slightly scary. No one had ever seen the men lose control like that before. They were absolutely inconsolable. Nothing anyone did could get them to even slightly calm down. Everyone's heart was in their throat. What was happening? Phil was trying to get an answer out of Aaron.

"What's going on? Can you tell us?" Aaron managed to choke out part of an answer.

"Will... he's..." Clint finished for him.

"Gone." Phil clutched Aaron tighter as a tear slipped down his face as well. Natasha couldn't muster as much control. Her boyfriend, the love of her life, was gone. She let out a sob and clutched Clint tighter than she ever had before. Aaron and Clint were in complete agony, a part of themselves that had been there their entire life was now gone, never to be gotten back again. The other Avengers looked on in total silence. The men had put their heads down in respect for a man they never even knew. Phil's phone rang, cutting through the crying. He picked it up, wiping all emotion from his voice. It was Fury.

"Yes Sir."

"I'm going to assume Clint and Aaron just lost control?"

"How do you know Sir?"

"SHIELD just got a video sent. It's Will. We can't trace where it came from yet, but all our techs are working on it." Phil froze. He didn't really want to see Will die, but... The Triplets had said gone. Not dead.

"Send it. Now."

"On one condition."

"What?"

"I send Will's team from IMF as well. They have some information that might be beneficial to you."

"Fine. Send it all to the Avengers Tower. I don't care. Just leave us alone for a while." Phil wasn't normally this blunt with the director, but one of his adoptive sons had just been (maybe) killed, leaving his other two with permanent trauma. He didn't have time to listen to the Director of SHIELD, even if the man was their godfather and pseudo uncle.

"I'll leave you be until Hunt and his team arrive. That should happen in about hours."

"Fine." He hung up without being dismissed and held Aaron tighter as he cried. Right now, he had more important things to worry about.

 **I know, I have a lot of other stories that I should update first, but I've lost ideas for them and motivation. If people could review on those stories or PM me with ideas, I would be happy to put those in. I'm just having writers block. Not with this idea though... And no, don't worry. This is not a death fic. Calm yourselves. I'll really try to update my other incomplete stories, but... I REALLY NEED IDEAS GUYS**


End file.
